Beneath This Man(151)

Jesse is displaying some sort of stun-gun reaction and my heart starts thundering in my chest.

I look down at my feet. 'It was fine. I left the bar and returned to Kate.' I try and brush it off before Jesse passes out.

'Stop saying its fine!' he yells.

I jump and reluctantly take a glimpse of him, finding bulging neck veins and a tense jaw. And then something catches my attention on the television and I look past Jesse. I shouldn't have. I should have ignored it, and then maybe it would have passed before Jesse had a chance to see it. My blood turns to ice. At the bar is a tall, suited man. It's too late to feign ignorance. Jesse swings back towards the flat screen to see what has caught my abrupt attention, as does Jay.

The silence is back as we all watch the man on the screen shift out of view when I get up to go to the bar. Then there's the pumped up, ponytailed creep, getting way too close, me dropping my change and gathering it up before I'm staggering and making my way back to the table. Then the man comes back into view. I squint to try and focus better. Is it him? It certainly looks like it, but his text message said he was in Denmark.

I can see Jesse in my peripheral vision twitching, indicating he is having the exact same thoughts as me, but I'm watching the footage with complete fascination now, also aware of Jesse's hard breathing, but too rapt by the television to look and confirm what I already know. He'll be rampant.

Time is suddenly passing fast, but then Sam walks in and the motions slow down again as I get up from the table, leaving Sam drooling all over Kate. And then Jesse appears in the lower corner of the screen and I watch as I collapse, hitting the floor hard, the flurry of people gathering around my lifeless body blocking out my view.

No one says anything - for a long, uncomfortable time. I turn my eyes to Jesse and find him watching me. I'm not at all comfortable with the blackness in his eyes, and I can feel tears brimming in my own. Should I tell them about the text? Jesse looks sadistic already. Should I add to his obvious fury?

Jay coughs, pulling my attention back to him. 'Have you seen enough?' he asks.

'Yes.' Jesse answers without taking his eyes off me. It's quite obvious now that Jesse turning up was probably the best thing that could have happened.

'I'll be off then.' Jay gets up and retrieves the disc from the player. 'I'll see myself out.'

Jesse says nothing as Jay leaves, shutting the door quietly behind him.

I sit at the top of the stairs and drop my eyes to my feet. I'm in a slight trance. This really could have been so much worse. No doubt Jesse will have something to say about my lack of honesty with regards to Matt's presence, but he can't blame me. Why would I openly offer that information? I'm not completely stupid. Well, it would appear I am. I never gave CCTV footage a thought, and I certainly didn't expect Jesse to start playing Inspector Poirot.

'You didn't mention Matt before.' Jesse's calm tone doesn't fool me, and why has he homed in on that instead of the more important issue at hand...the tall suited man at the bar. I know he thinks it's him too.

My shoulders rise anxiously, but I don't look up; I already know he's angry. I don't need visual confirmation, and I should think it's pretty obvious why I didn't mention Matt. 'I didn't want to upset you.'

'Upset me?' His voice is high with surprise.

'Okay, I didn't want to piss you off.' I look up at him and find a completely impassive expression. I'm surprised; I was expecting boiling mad. 'It was a chance meeting.'

'But you had a few minutes conversation. What did you talk about?'

'He apologised.'

'And that took a few minutes?' His eyebrows are raised. He's right, an apology doesn't even take two seconds, but I can't remember every detail of the conversation. 'I told you not to see him again.'

I gape at him. 'Jesse, I didn't plan on it. I told you, it was only by chance.' What did he want me to do? Walk out of the bar? 'I wanted to know how he knows about you.'

'Do you care?' He's reining in his temper. I can see it.

'No, I don't.'

His teeth start working his bottom lip as he watches me. I feel guilty and I don't know why. I've done nothing wrong. He's not shouting at me, but he's clearly not happy. What am I supposed to do? I know he's thinking exactly what I'm thinking about Mikael, but he can't possibly be mad at me about that because I didn't even know he was there - if it was even him. Was it him?